Political organizations, particularly those committed to radical change, face their greatest tests in times of crisis. In 1914, German social democracy, the international socialist movements crown jewel, was brought to its knees by its inability to confront the outbreak of World War I. Two decades later, German Communisms ultra-leftism proved similarly impotent in the face of the growing Nazi threat, and Europe's most powerful laboUr movement was decimated within a couple of years.